Biogen shares charge late after approval won for MS drug

Shares of Biogen Idec Inc. made a late charge Wednesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced it would approve the company’s multiple sclerosis treatment Tecfidera.

Bloomberg News

But Biogen
/quotes/zigman/91573/quotes/nls/biibBIIB lost some momentum in after-hours trading. Shares were up more than 3% during the last half-hour of trading to end the day at $182.68, a gain of $5.59 a share for the biotech giant. That coincides with the FDA’s release, which said that two clinical trials showed users of Tecfidera capsules had fewer MS relapses compared with patients taking placebo. There also were fewer occurrences in which a disability worsened with Tecfidera use, the FDA said.

After hours, though, shares fell more than 1.5% to $179.86 as the Street apparently struggled to digest the significance of the ruling.

“No drug provides a cure for multiple sclerosis so it is important to have a variety of treatment options available for patients,” said Dr. Russell Katz, director of the neurology products division in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The news may hurt shares of Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
/quotes/zigman/10294855/quotes/nls/tevaTEVA, which had called for greater scrutiny of Tecfidera, also known as BG-12. Teva shares ended the day down more than one percent to $39.50, dropping precipitously on higher volume in the last half-hour of trading. But they also started to climb back up in after-hours trading.

Teva, which makes a competing injectable MS drug called Copaxone, had called for the FDA to scrutinize possible side effects of Tecfidera. Copaxone comprises about 40% of the MS market.

The FDA did say that Tecfidera may reduce white blood cell counts, thus breaking down some barriers to infection, though no significant increase in infections was seen during trials. The drug also can cause the skin to become flushed and create nausea, though those side effects may diminish.

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